{"id":118586,"date":"2023-12-18T10:06:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T15:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/?p=118586"},"modified":"2023-12-18T10:25:33","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T15:25:33","slug":"first-systematic-analysis-of-nih-finds-funding-gaps-for-tb-risk-factors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2023\/12\/18\/first-systematic-analysis-of-nih-finds-funding-gaps-for-tb-risk-factors\/","title":{"rendered":"First Systematic Analysis of NIH TB Grants Reveals Underfunding for TB Risk Factors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tuberculosis (TB) has regained its place as the leading infectious killer worldwide. Annually, 1.6 million people die of this disease which is\u00a0 equivalent to three TB deaths per minute. While the TB pandemic is driven by five key risk factors \u2013 undernutrition, HIV, alcohol use, tobacco use and diabetes \u2013 the extent of mismatch between their impact on TB and available research funding is unclear.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at Boston University Chobanian &amp; Avedisian School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have found that research on key TB risk factors, like undernutrition, is underfunded, especially when their relative impacts are considered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile HIV is a key driver of the TB pandemic, particularly in Africa, inattention to other risk factors is damaging to global TB elimination efforts. Undernutrition, which accounts for at least one in five cases of TB world-wide, received a small fraction of research funding accorded to HIV-TB in 2018-2019 ($1.2 million for TB-undernutrition vs. $87.6 million for TB-HIV),\u201d explains corresponding author Madeline Carwile, a TB research assistant at BMC. \u201cSystematically quantifying the mismatch, which we have done in this study, can help us advocate for increasing NIH funding for other key TB risk factors and realize the goals of TB elimination programs through scientific discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The researchers systematically reviewed NIH RePORTER (the website listing all projects funded by the NIH) to compare research funding for key TB comorbidities: undernutrition, alcohol use, HIV, tobacco use and diabetes. Abstracts were reviewed for each comorbidity over a ten-year funding period that included the project title, category, description and funding amount. Funding for each comorbidity was then compared to the number of TB cases attributable to each risk factor.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2023\/11\/Sinha.jpg\" alt=\"Headshot of Pranay Sinha, MD\" width=\"105\" height=\"131\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-118273\" \/>TB is the leading infectious cause of death globally and is one of the top global health priorities, according to researchers. \u00a0\u201cAddressing TB requires strategic health and research investments which will help us develop interventions that can curb the TB pandemic,\u201d says co-senior author <a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.bu.edu\/Pranay.Sinha\">Pranay Sinha<\/a>, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the school and an infectious disease physician at BMC. \u201cTo develop a more holistic approach to the management of TB, which incorporates integration of care for key comorbidities such as tobacco use, alcohol use, diabetes, and undernutrition, we need more translational, clinical and implementation research.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The researchers believe their data can serve as advocacy tools to urge policymakers and funders to diversify their research investments and allocate more research funding to currently underfunded risk factors.<\/p>\n<p><span>These finding appear <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/ofid\/advance-article\/doi\/10.1093\/ofid\/ofad618\/7477625?searchresult=1\">online<\/a> in Open Forum Infectious Diseases<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Funding lacking in TB research on comorbidities like undernutrition, alcohol use, tobacco use and diabetes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20713,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,90],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20713"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118586"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118591,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118586\/revisions\/118591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}